


Survive

by AshWinterGray



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Burns, Fire, Survival, Vines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-13 15:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21154217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshWinterGray/pseuds/AshWinterGray
Summary: Steve gets dragged into the Upside Down to protect the people he loves





	Survive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Swimmerkoko8014](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swimmerkoko8014/gifts).

Steve Harrington would say he knew what he was doing. Okay, that was a bit of a stretch. He didn’t have a plan set in stone, but he did know what he was doing. And right now, he knew what he was doing.

It came back, because of course it would come back. It always came back. And it always tried to kill the kids.

So Steve knew what he was doing. And right now, he was wrestling a monster back through the gate.

“STEVE!”

“NO!”

Giving the thing yet another hard hit with the bat, he chanced a glance at where the others had finally entered the room. Mike was a short distance away, bloodied and beaten and still unconscious. The monster had gotten smarter. A lot smarter. It knew how to get to them. How to get to El.

With a glance at where the others were, Steve locked eyes with Robin and Dustin. Just for a second, and then he lunged at the monster, knocking them both into the gate.

“Just. Die!” Steve wailed on the thing again.

He would die here. He knew that, but if everything was focused on him, they would have enough time to close the gate again. Maybe for good this time. He always knew he’d end up dying for those kids, ever since Dustin dragged him into the demodog business.

The creature wailed one last breath, Steve could hear the gate stitch itself closed, the Mind-Flayer screeched above him. Pure rage.

He was surrounded.

And he wasn’t going down without a fight.

\-----------------------------------

He woke up to the toxic air of the Upside Down, the bruising grip of something around his body, and something sticking down his throat.

Vines.

He struggled, jerked, tried to get the thing out of his mouth to no avail. He didn’t want to become a flayed or a spy. He didn’t want to hurt the kids.

Then a full-grown Demogorgon walked into the tunnels, the vines growing tighter around Steve for a moment before slowly releasing him. Steve coughed wildly as the thing left his mouth, but he scampered back as the monster got closer. It observed him for a moment, watched as he huddled against the wall, reaching for a bat that wasn’t there. It’s clenched hand-like-thing reached out to him then, and dropped something in his lap.

A Three Musketeer candy bar.

“D’art?” Steve asked, his voice sounding hoarse.

The monster seemed to perk up at that, nuzzling it’s closed flowered mouth into his chest like an actual puppy. Not sure what else to do, Steve reached forward and pet the monster’s head.

It nudged the candy bar, and if the thing had eyes, Steve had no doubt it would have looked expectant. Opening the candy bar slowly, Steve split it in half, offered some to D’art and ate the other half of the nougat-chocolate candy.

It seemed like the right thing to do.

“Um, hi,” Steve waved as he realized D’art was staring at him. “Hi, D’art.”

D’art gave a sound that could have been a snort and then began to leave. That was clearly what the vines had been waiting for, and Steve screamed as the tugged him back against the wall. His cries were once again muffled as the vines shoved down his throat.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been there, wasn’t sure how long the vines held him, and he wasn’t sure what was going to happen. But he knew he would never let himself hurt his kids. Even if that meant dying.

The vines didn’t release him when D’art came back, and he knew it was D’art because it had that yellow stripe on its butt. Steve had realized a while ago that the vines were injecting him with something, and he’d tried to choke it up at first, but with the vines literally going down his throat, his gag reflex wasn’t working.

After what felt like hours of D’art staring, the vines finally lowered him to the ground.

“What do you want from me?” Steve coughed, trying in vain to get whatever the vines injected out of his system. “What do you want?”

D’art didn’t speak, because of course it couldn’t speak. But then the monster leaned over him and bit down on the back of his shirt collar. He was too weak to fight back, especially as D’art began to carry him through the tunnels that way.

At some point, he blacked out.

\--------------------------------

When Steve awoke again, it was to the sight of D’art and a lot of food. D’art seemed to be rather pleased with what he found, and Steve had to admit he was impressed. It was all quality items of what Steve knew from his world, not the stuff from the Upside Down.

He uncapped the water first, downing it only to throw it back up again.

“I’m fine,” Steve insisted as D’art nudged him worriedly. “Just drank to fast. I’m fine.”

He took small sips after that, nibbled on what he felt would stay down easily.

D’art watched, occasionally whipping its head to somewhere outside. It took Steve a moment to realize he was in the Upside Down version of Melvald’s general store.

“Why are we here?” Steve questioned. “What did you do to me?”

D’art titled his head, opened his mouth a little, and made an odd cooing sound. The monster then tapped Steve’s nose.

Steve would admit he was slow on the uptake more often than not, but he was normally got the point eventually. It took him a moment to realize what D’art was trying to hint at.

_He could breathe._

The air around him wasn’t poisoned, though he knew it was. D’art and the vines had done something to him. Something to help him survive.

This was a lot for anyone to handle.

\------------------------------

D’art couldn’t speak, and Steve knew that, but as time went by, they had a way of communicating. It was as if Steve could sense and read what D’art was trying to convey to him. He didn’t always gather it right away, but he’d like to think he understood D’art better now.

His bat, he had learned, was long since gone. It had been destroyed when the Mind-Flayer had sent everything imaginable at Steve. The only reason Steve survived was because D’art was clever. He’d found a way to break his connection with the Mind-Flayer and had since been breaking other things’ connection with the Mind-Flayer. Like the vines that had saved Steve’s life.

“Ready?”

D’art gave a nod and the two of them bolted.

There was a screech as several other demodogs smelled the scent of Steve’s blood, but this was their fifth attempt. They weren’t sure how much time they had left. It wasn’t a gate, not this time, but it was definitely something of importance.

“GO!” Steve screamed at D’art, knowing the creature was faster. “RUN!”

D’art obliged, knowing Steve would be right behind. Another loud howl from behind, be neither dared turn around. D’art pounced, something screamed, the ground opened up, and Steve slid in after.

“You, sir, are a hard man to get to,” Steve panted as he stood up and looked at… “Hopper?”

“Harrington?”

Only then, Hopper broke into coughing fits. Steve was by his side in an instant, taking a cap of water he’d found and giving it to Hopper. He didn’t dare let Hopper drinking the whole thing, having learned the hard way from being dehydrated for a few days sometime back.

“You were dead,” Steve breathed once Hopper was done. “Mrs. Byers said you died.”

“I jumped,” Hopper coughed again. It sounded wet, and Steve jerk a look towards D’art. “Are they okay?”

Steve gave a half-hearted shrug. “Not sure. Had to save Mike, and here I am. Lost track of time, and been running for a long time.”

Hopper looked like he was going to say something else when the vines started to circle him. He gave a yelp, but was quickly muffled by vines going down his throat.

“Don’t fight,” Steve instructed quickly. “Hop, don’t fight. They’re trying to save you!”

D’art nudged Steve’s hand, and whimpered as Hopper continued to thrash.

“Hopper!” Steve snapped. “Stop fighting. They’re trying to save you, you idiot! The vines are giving off a nectar that allows our bodies to adjust to the poison.”

Hopper still didn’t look like he believed Steve, but he quit thrashing. He was clearly sick, and tired, and he had been here so much longer than Steve. Now that Hopper was done thrashing, Steve could take in more than just the paleness of his skin.

His hair had grown out, as had his beard. He was skinny, and there were dark bags under his eyes. He was on edge, still terrified, so Steve talked about anything and everything as the vines pumped him with whatever they had done to Steve.

“I don’t know, Mike and El were still pretty close, but it was like they were afraid to touch each other once we all gathered together again,” Steve shrugged, which was the exact moment that the vines decided to drop Hopper. “Oh, okay, uh, here, let me get you more water.”

Hopper was clearly too weak to do much else but take the water from Steve, though he was eyeing Steve curiously now.

“El lost her powers?” Hopper’s voice was hoarse.

And oh. Right…

“Yeah, though they were coming back the last time I saw her,” Steve explained gently, putting the cap of water back to Hopper’s lips. “Try to drink a bit more, Hop. It helps. But, yeah, they were coming back, just not as strong. Like, she couldn’t find people, and she can’t lift heavy objects anymore. Dustin and his girlfriend were running theories, and they think it had to do with her emotional state.” Hopper nodded, tensing as D’art got closer.

“Oh, this is D’art, Dustin’s old friend. He’s been my friend since I got here.”

Hopper eyed the Demogorgon beside Steve for a minute before turning back to the teen.

“How did you get clean water?”

“Blips,” Steve stated. “At least, that’s what I call them. Little mini-gates that open up. The most I’ve been able to do is fit my hand through, but without the aid of El, that’s about all we can do.”

Steve knew that Hopper was thinking over everything, but they really needed to get a move on. The vines that were on their side could only stay in one location for so long, or they risked re-bonding with the Mind-Flayer.

“Come on, old man,” Steve tugged Hopper up and threw the rest of the supplies on his back. “Time to move.”

With D’art supporting Hopper’s other side, they got out pretty quickly.

\-----------------------------------

The Mind-Flayer was always relentless in it’s hunt. Always searching for Steve and D’art. Always screaming when it got there too late, or another part of it was ripped away.

“We’ll have to end this,” Steve said more to D’art than Hopper one night. “We have to kill it.”

D’art made that odd cooing sound that Steve knew to be the creature agreeing.

“How do you plan to do that?” Hopper stared at Steve as if he had grown a second head. “What could we possibly do against that thing?”

Steve locked eyes with Hopper, pulling out his most prized possession.

His lighter.

“We burn it.”

\----------------------------------

Hopper was very much against the plan, but Steve hardly cared. With a slit to his arm, Steve let the blood flow down his arm, waiting. He could hear as the creatures raced forward, felt as the ground shifted, ready to take him.

He didn’t react until the Mind-Flayer drew near, ready to take him. Once it was close, Steve let the flames blaze around him. He knew D’art would protect Hopper until he could be brought back to their world.

And for once, Steve felt no fear. Only acceptance.

Too bad the world wasn’t done with him just yet.

“Idiot,” Hopper was scolding as he bandaged Steve’s burns. “You stupid, stupid idiot.”

“Yeah,” Steve hummed. “I know.”

\--------------------------------

Steve, Hopper, and D’art had been doing this for some time now. So when he reached his hand through one of the small gates and someone grabbed his hand, Steve literally jumped ten feet in the air, only just shoving a hand in his mouth to stifle his own cry. Hopper and D’art instantly jerked towards him in panic.

“Steve?”

The voice was muffled yet familiar on the other side of the gate. He’d know that voice anywhere.

_“Robin?”_

“Steve!” she gushed, her voice cracking. “Steve! Guys! Guys! He’s here! I found him.”

Robin didn’t let go of his hand, and Steve felt himself grab Hopper’s battered shirt as they were tugged through the gate by both Robin’s hand and an unseen force.

Eleven.

Steve and Hopper found themselves landing in a heap on the floor, Steve’s hand still gripped in Robin’s. It was dark, so for a moment, Steve feared that he hadn’t been pulled into the real world and Robin had instead been dragged into the Upside Down. But then he saw the moon and he burst into laughter. Followed quickly by throwing up a deep, dark, sludge.

There wasn’t much time for reunions because Doctor Owens was insisting they be rushed to the hospital.

\----------------------------

The sludge, which Steve now realized was the stuff D’art had injected into his body, took about a week and a half to get out. There were kept in quarantine the whole time, only allowed to see the others behind glass.

Steve had a lap full of kids the moment they were cleared.

“Everyone thought Hawkins was haunted,” Lucas was explaining. “Stuff just going missing. But we just had to look into it. That’s when we discovered the mini-gates.”

“We’ve been trying to track them,” Mike picked up. “Trying to figure out where they led, and with El’s powers building, we managed to find a pattern, figure out Hopper was alive, and find you.”

“Yes, well, we’ve decided to be prepared this time,” Doctor Owens scoffed. “After the whole debacle of you disappearing, then finding monsters and Billy Hargrove in Russia, we’ve decided to be prepared.”

“It’s dead.”

The group turned to look at Steve, though Hopper looked pained at Steve’s properly bandaged body that hid the horrifying burns.

“It’s dead,” Steve repeated. “The Mind-Flayer. I killed it.”

And Steve had survived.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what this was....


End file.
